MESSENGER'S SONS. 249 



harnessed and was a very popular stallion in Salem and adjoin- 

 ing counties for many years. Mr. Atkinson was a very prom- 

 inent and influential member of the Society of Friends, and 

 4 'Billy" Atkinson was always a welcome guest as he traveled 

 through Salem, Gloucester, and Burlington counties with his 

 horse, and his genial good humor made him as popular as his 

 horse. He always claimed great speed for his horse, but owing 

 to his position in the society he never could gratify his friends 

 by showing it. When his offspring came into service they were 

 not only performers of great merit on the road and the course, 

 but they had bone and substance that fitted them for every kind 

 of labor required of them. All the Quakers had Mambrinos and 

 nothing else, after "Billy" Atkinson and his horse had been 

 among them a few years. Some of his descendants attained to 

 great local fame as trotters and some did well as runners. He 

 was a very valuable horse and left a wonderfully numerous and 

 valuable offspring. 



BLACK MESSENGER. Among all the progeny of Messenger, 

 this is the only one that I can now recall that was black. He 

 was bred by William Haselton, of Burlington County, New 

 Jersey, and out of a mare highly prized in the Haselton family, 

 but her blood cannot now be traced. He was foaled in 1801 and 

 on the death of Mr. Haselton in 1804 he was sold to Charles or 

 Richard Wilkins of Evesham, ten miles from Camden, New 

 Jersey, who owned him till he died at an advanced age. As the 

 birth of this horse is fixed by documentary evidence at 1801 it sug- 

 gests that Messenger was kept in Burlington County, New 

 Jersey, the unplaced season of 1800. Still as he was at Lawrence- 

 ville in the fall season of 1800 it is possible the mare was sent to 

 him there. He was full sixteen hands high and possessed great 

 muscular development and strength of bone. He was not hand- 

 some, but his figure and style were very commanding. In his 

 day he was regarded as one of the best natural trotters ever in 

 Burlington or Gloucester counties. This was not the claim of his 

 owner merely, but the unprejudiced opinion of all the horsemen 

 who knew him. His stock were very highly prized as hor&es 

 suited to all purposes and especially for fast road work. Some 

 of them were greatly distinguished locally as fast trotters, and 

 among them was Nettle, the dam of the famous Dutchman, that 

 was the greatest trotter of his day. 



WHYNOT MESSENGER, Pizzant's Messenger, Austin's Messen- 



